All These Things That I Have Done
by museicality
Summary: Written for SMACKDOWN 2011, Team Underpants.   Drabble series: "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.  Dom and Evin and the lives they lead.
1. When There's No Where Else to Run

Title: When There's No Where Else to Run

Rating: PG

Word Count: 150

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "When there's no where else to run": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.)

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><p>Perhaps the Riders could have gotten away.<p>

Mounted on their nimble, shaggy ponies, they could have picked their way safely through the mountain forest and gotten far away from here.

Armed with their bows, swords, and cunning tricks, they could have melted into the dappled shadows and hidden, waited until the danger was far away from here.

Perhaps they could have made it, Dom thought, and for once he cursed the unwieldy grandeur of the King's Own.

It wasn't supposed to be this dangerous; two squads should have been more than enough. They were more than enough—more than enough warhorses, more than enough supplies, more than enough chainmail and plate armor.

No, what they were in short supply of was speed, speed and tactical advantages.

"Dom, there's nowhere else to run," Evin shouted, pulling up his pony and turning.

Dom closed his eyes.

"Then we'll make our stand here."


	2. One More Son

Title: One More Son

Rating: PG

Word Count: 224

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Is there room for one more son?": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.)

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><p>"Up you go," Evin heaves Dom upright, slinging his arm over his shoulder. The movement causes Dom to gasp, white-faced, and Evin glances at him sharply.<p>

" 'S fine," Dom groans. "I think I just bruised it." His free hand flutters around his side, but touching his ribs draws another gasp, and Evin swats the hand away.

"Still, don't touch it; leave that to someone who knows what they're doing." Evin continued hauling Dom in the direction of the Healer's wing.

"I really hope you're not implying that dear Meathead knows what he's doing…"

"Well, then, you'd better hope your uncle is around."

Evin shoved the door open with his shoulder, drawing the curious glance of Duke Baird. "Is there room for one more, Sir? This thick-skulled idiot got a good rap in the ribs."

Baird shook his head, hiding a remorseful grin in his hand. "This way, please."

Evin watched, satisfied, as green light glowed around Baird's hands. As he stood by the door, Neal entered from a back room and started to scold Dom, or so Evin assumed from the vehement way he waved his hands and the way that Dom laughed him off.

Even if his parents didn't care enough to fill a teacup, Evin was glad to see that Dom still had family, even one as, well, strange as this.


	3. Hold On

Title: Hold On

Rating: PG

Word Count: 211

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "If you can hold on, hold on": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.)

Everything happened too fast.

The immortals struck, and he was in the saddle before he was awake.

They were on the road, and Miri sprinted up to them, a burr on the back of her pony.

"There's flooding; we don't have enough hands," she gasped.

The wall of water swept everything out of its path.

"Evacuate, get out NOW!" Dom could hear the dull roar—Raoul?—as he dismounted and ran to help.

"It's about to let go!" Another familiar voice. "MOVE!"

He turned to see Evin, strong, brave, [i]reckless[/i] Evin heaving a woman away from the edge of the land.

"Gracie!" she shrieked, and as the ground crumbled and fell away, Evin leaped to grab the child.

"Dammit, Evin!" Dom could see the ground continue to melt away, and he seized Evin by the arm just in time. "Hold on!"

"Here," Evin groaned as he passed the girl up, and other hands (Riders, Own? He couldn't tell, didn't care) took her away.

"Ready?" Dom didn't wait for an answer.

"Ow, Dom, careful!" Evin, sitting on solid ground, massaged his ribs. Dom shook out his arms, determined not to think about how close that had all been.

"Stop diving over cliffs, you idiot, and we won't have to haul you anywhere."


	4. Let Go

Title: Let Go

Rating: PG

Word Count: 321

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I wanna stand up, I wanna let go": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.) (Follows "Hold On")

He saw the ground sliding away underneath them again, heard—was that Raoul? Oh good, the Own were here, finally—bellowing somewhere behind him.

His eyes were fixed on the woman he had just helped out of her ruined home.

"It's about to let go! MOVE!" He threw her behind him, where she would be safe. He'd apologize for the bruises later, when her being alive would be the greater of the two things, and turned to where her child had stopped to pick up something.

Her doll.

"Gracie!" The panic and pain in the mother's voice made up his mind, even as he saw the ground begin to melt and shift again, and he launched himself at the child.

He had been too late for too many others, and he would not let the angry floodwaters behind her claim this child.

Almost at the same time his arm locked around the girl, someone else's gripped his own. "Dammit, Evin! Hold on!"

Evin grinned over the head of the girl, adrenaline racing under his skin as he watched the earth hit the water beneath him and disappear. Only Dom could be so irritated with him at a moment like this.

"Here," he grunted and tensed his arms, hauling the girl over his head. She disappeared, and Evin barely had time to hear the word "Ready?" before his chest scraped over the edge, dragging him away from the swirling rapids eating away at everything.

"Ow…" he heard himself saying, concentrating more on breathing in deeply and settling himself than what he was telling Dom.

"… won't have to haul you anywhere," Evin heard Dom say, and he reached for Dom's outstretched hand.

"Thanks for not letting go," he grinned at Dom, letting the _Thank you for saving our lives_ go unsaid but understood.

"Like I would let go; Buri'd never let me hear the end of it."

_I won't let go. Ever._


	5. You KnowNo, You Don't

Title: You Know—No, You Don't

Rating: PG

Word Count: 188

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "You know, you know—no you don't, you don't": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.)

"You know it has to be like this."

They were reaching the end of another long argument, one that neither side wanted to lose.

Dom wasn't sure who lost, every time this particular argument came up.

"You knew it last time, you know it now, you'll still know it next time."

He hated how Evin Larse's words, hard and sharp, ran straight over the slight shaking in his voice.

He hated how Evin Larse could make himself say those words.

"No, it doesn't."

Just like always, Dom heard himself fight back; and he hated himself a little, too, for always reminding them of what they couldn't have.

"You don't have to go out with the Fifth and the Seventh tomorrow. You're the commander now, you have reasons to stay here."

Evin opened his mouth to interrupt but Dom stopped him.

"You didn't have to leave last week, and you don't have to do everything yourself."

"You know it's my job, Dom."

"You don't have to kill yourself over your work."

Evin sighed. "I'm not going to."

Dom looked away. "You don't have to kill me over your work."


	6. Shine On, In the Hearts of Men

Title: Shine On In The Hearts of Men

Rating: PG

Word Count: 209

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I wanna shine on in the hearts of men": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.)

"Fame."

"Glory."

"Honor."

The newest men sat around the fire, trying to guess the answer to the great question 'why?'

Why did they feel the pull of Tortall's need? Why did they continue on when others wouldn't?

Dom and Evin looked at each other.

"Never, ever suggest those to Lord Raoul," Dom offered them helpfully. Evin snorted; the last time that had happened, he'd been walking by the tent when Raoul's laughter turned hysterical. Duke Baird had gotten all the way to the tent before someone told him it was just…normal. Well, kind of.

"Evin, why did you join the Riders?" One of his Group, a slightly built girl in her late teens, spoke up for the first time.

"Why did I join?" Evin paused, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I guess, at the time, I wanted to do something, be noticed for something."

She pursed her lips in thought. "And you, Sergeant Domitan?"

Dom grinned. "Me too, at first."

"What's the difference now?" Another Rider spoke up.

"Now?" Evin's face broke out in a grin, but not one of his blinding, fast ones. This spread across his face, slowly and fiercely.

"I still want to make a difference; just, to different people than I thought back then."


	7. A Meaning

Title: A Meaning

Rating: PG

Word Count: 205

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.)

As soon as it started to hurt, he regretted his actions.

He replayed the incident in his mind; partially to take his mind off of the pain, and partially to look for answers.

_"I don't understand why we're needed, sir," Dom mentioned, leaning against the doorframe. "This is a job for the Riders, not the Own, even if only a squad or two heads out."_

_Raoul shuffled papers without looking up. "They're actually all out in the field right now. Even if they weren't, orders are orders."_

_Dom's jaw tightened. "Excuse me, sir."_

_But the door to Evin's rooms was locked and his rooms were empty, once he'd gotten in. Everything was stashed away and tidied, a sign that they were going to be empty for quite some time._

_"Damn it, Evin," he swore, looking at the rooms._

"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?"

_Somehow, he realized, mid-motion, what was happening, but it was too late and his hand, no, his fist hit the wall. Bone against stone, something crunched and the pain told him it wasn't the wall. _

"I don't understand," he muttered as he cradled his bruised (and possibly broken) hand, but neither he nor it had found any answers.


	8. Another Heart Breaks

Title: Another Heart Breaks

Rating: PG

Word Count: 147

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Another head aches, another heart breaks": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.)

Drained, Dom can't keep his shoulders straight anymore. He hates that he has to look this man in the eye as he tells what he knows.

The man, eyes hungry and pleading, can't look away, and Dom sighs.

"We haven't found anything new."

_We haven't found anyone else_.

The man's shoulders fall, as if crushed by the weight of the world, and Dom wishes that Evin was one of the Riders in the group that they had called in for reinforcement. Evin, crazy as he was, was the most intuitive person Dom had ever met, and one of the most empathetic as well.

Evin would have the words Dom couldn't find, stuck in the back of his throat with the sand and the grit and the muck that they had been slogging through these past days since the landslide.

"I'll… let you know when we find something."


	9. Older

Title: Older

Rating: PG

Word Count: 187

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I'm so much older than I can take": (Part of "All These Things That I Have Done" prompt series; lyrics by The Killers.)

AN: I just want to take this opportunity to thank my readers; as you may have noticed, the majority of my work on ffnet is very, very short, or consisting of very short chapters. This is caused by the fact that these fic were written for Goldenlake's SMACKDOWN challenge last year, and time was of the essence! In the future, I'll be uploading fic that is longer, so thank you for reading all these short drabbles and keep an eye out :) ~Muse

He remembers what the world looked like when he first had arrived in the capital, when he first walked into the central offices of the King's Own and handed his papers to Flyndan.

He remembers it being a little brighter, a little more magical than it looks now.

He can't help, nowadays, to remember that magic has two sides; there are the kudarung of the Copper Isles and the hurroks that have terrorized Tortall, two versions of the same dream. The world is made more of shades of grey than black and white.

He used to dream of the majesty, of the glory and the tales of high adventure spun out around campfires under clear skies.

He used to dream of promotions.

But when Raoul offers him the spot of commanding the Second Company, he says he has to think about it, and goes to find Evin.

Evin, who is now the Commander of the Riders.

Evin hears him out, remembers all of these things with him, and gives him a smile that has a sad edge to it.

"…we're not so young anymore, are we, Dom?"


End file.
